Uncle Jack (Read 1,385 times)

Steve, that is a wonderful video.

Not many of those WW-2 bomber crews left.

Our country needs to do more to honor them, with something beside lip service.

I know none of them are asking, or looking, but we need to do them the honor they deserve, before it is too late.

They are facing "Final Muster" at a rate of about 1000 per day.



Gary Senise took a flight in a two-seat U-2.


'Lt. Dan' flies high
www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123259635



Jim Too

:god_bless_usa

Fantastic video :2thumbsup That was such a great thing for him to do. Another reason he's one of my favorite actors and people.

Guys, that would be the coolest thing to hop a ride in one of those aircraft.

I'm reminded of flying over in the desert, and inviting some of the passengers up to our C-130 cockpit for the trip. We'd usually try to pick the good lookers (really!), but sometimes - alot actually - we'd grab the privates. You see, alot of times there would be some Colonel, or E-9 that would "insist" they ride up on the bunk. We could tell if they were being pushy, and often would make up some excuse about excess equipment, or whatever just so they wouldn't get to ride up front. Seriously!

That's why it was important to us as a crew to let those kids ride up there. I actually had to teach my loadmasters what the Army and Marine Corps rank abbreviations meant on the manifest. As an old Army guy, I could read it, and I taught it to my loadmasters. Sometimes I would be back there when we were loading passengers, and specifically start looking for the most junior ranking kids, pull them out of line, and tell them to come with me. At first, some would get scared! Most of the time they were tired, hadn't showered in who-knows-when, and a few thought they were about to get bumped from their ride home. I would get them out of the way from the other troops, and tell them they got to sit up front with us! The smiles I saw were priceless! I know what a thrill that would have been for me as a young private, so I can understand how they felt.

It is better to give than receive!

That's one of the experiences I'll never forget. Giving them that opportunity.

Mark

Here's a shot of a couple of Airmen we let sit up front during a flight.

Thanks Mark, just another thing is a hallmark of a good NCO.......
The Old Sarge

While I applaud Mark O for letting young troops sit up front, I condem him for his stating, "We'd usually try to pick the good lookers."
That is a sexest statement and not in good taste.

But I also question his constant negative comments about "Chiefs/E-9's.
His comments about "Making excuses" is another way of saying lie. Not very good in the integrity department.

I didn't always agree with the Colonel's I worked for, but I always treated them with the same respect.

Not all Chief's were pushy. I would alsways offer my seat to young deserving people. And not just the "good lookers."

As chief of the C-130 Simulator Section at McChord we often gave simulator rides to the young Airmen on Saterdays when crews weren't using. I volunteered my off-duty time to operate Simulator for them.

I was a proud member of the Chief's Group at WPAFB and we always had Programs honoring our great young troops.

So I don't think I was an unusual Chief, but reprersentative of most Chiefs, then and now. And back when I was active we used the term E-9 as a not so favorable term to a few of the arse-kisser's. I agree there were some E-9's that I didn't have the grestest respect for as an individual. But I still respected the rank/position. As an E-4 at Tyndall, I talked many times with CMSgt Paul Airey. The same Chief who became the first CMSAF.

So Mark, I know from many of your posts that you are a nice man, good father and honest person. But take it easy on us old Chiefs. And thanks again for being one of America's finest.

lber1568 - I took his use of "E-9" more in the vane of 'any service E-9' not just USAF Chiefs. C-130 ops I'm sure still cater to all services on routine missions so I'm sure he ends up with (ended up with now that retirement is here) plenty of them. But, I could be wrong.

Wow, "condemed." You got me. Sexist? You bet. We sure as hell were. I even had a female navigator that would go out and pick out the good looking guys to ride up front! (Fair is fair!) I'm not going to get into whether it was right or wrong, however it happened, and although I haven't been over there since last October, I guarantee it still happens.

You want to know another little secret? The absolute WORSE passengers I ever hauled had service tapes over their pockets that said, "U.S. AIR FORCE". I kid you not. Every one of them? Of course not. But if I had to pick between all four services, the USAF pax were the worst. I don't know why, but they bitched the most, thought they could sit where they wanted, got into our lunch cooler at will, and maybe thought they had a free reign since it said U.S. AIR FORCE on the side of the plane. The Marines, and Soldiers were the best. They listened. You could see in some of their faces they weren't happy about the conditions, but they listened, and most were happy they were getting a ride home.


Constant? Negative? No, I don't think so. Now, about my use of the pay grade term "E-9." I did that on purpose to avoid writing each specific rank of each service. I didn't write the word "Chief" either. No one service singled out is better than the others, and I know y'all know the difference between the real Chiefs, or Sergeants Major, and the ones who just wore the stripes. Any service. I also qualified it with the term "pushy*."

Of course we let the senior officers, and non-coms sit up front! It was expected, and we had no problem doing it. In fact, we usually didn't have a choice in the matter. We would pull them out of line too. In fact, we probably pulled more senior officers, and NCOs out of line than junior troops. We even got a few smiles from those guys! (Even a few commander coins!) Protocol officers would also escort these folks out to the aircraft seperate from the other passengers. It was those surprise senior officers or NCOs who would get out of line, and try to TELL US what they would do. Uh-uh. We knew the type, and honestly, most of the time we just said, okay, come on up. We would usually avoid giving them a headset though, and most of them just fell asleep as soon as we took off anyway. However, like I said if we could get away with it by not letting them sit up front, you bet we would! Yep, guilty again. We lied. (I'm not going to deny any of this happened.)

The ones I'm going to remember, however are those young troops. I think it's just human nature to remember the good times, and supress the bad times. Some of the bad ones really do stick out, however. That's all.

Shoot I remember a couple times when Lt Col's or Col's would even insist that they sit in the back with their troops! Chiefs and Sergeants Major would too even if we offered them a ride up front. Big difference between those guys and the pushy* ones!

That's all I was trying to say. I respect your opinion, and observations about my post Chief, and I certainly don't want you to think my crew and I were snubbing our noses at anyone's rank, or position. These events happened, probably happened in every war where C-130 crews hauled passengers, and are still happening. If the DO's and CC's don't know this is happening they are in a see no evil, hear no evil mode.

Mark

* - In the interest of total disclosure, please substiture the word "a$$hole" wherever the word "pushy" is used!